Track time at Barber with the 2014 Camaro Z/28

"I never expected this out of a Camaro."

TRACK

Barber Motorsports Park

Location: Birmingham Alabama

Length: 2.3 miles

Lap Time: 100.56 seconds

Average Speed: 81.4 mph

Top Speed: 119.12 mph

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Our Road Test Editor, Robin Warner, took the brand new 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama to see if Chevy's new track-oriented, muscle-bound coupe had the moves to back up its spec sheet. This is his brief report.

Barber Motorsports Park never allows the car to open up for elongated stretches, but the track offers an elegant flow with three different straightaways. In the Z/28, we hit close to 120 mph on each one, the back straightaway just slightly faster than the others. Turn 1 was a thrill because it's deceptively fast. Originally expecting a 50-mph apex as we entered blindly, we could maintain more like 75 mph while shooting downhill.

The Z/28 showed just the slightest whiff of understeer in longer sweeping corners, but any power-on shenanigans quickly sent the tail wagging the dog. We left plenty of lap time on the table and still managed an average speed that would warrant a ticket on any interstate.